Bathtub-shower combinations are frequently installed in modern homes to provide combined facilities for either bathing in the bathtub or showering. Where such combination tub and shower is installed, some type of enclosure is provided for the tub to prevent leakage and splashing of water outside of the tub area during showering. In some bathtub installations an enclosure for the bathtub is desired for privacy.
Prior enclosures have included shower curtains which may be drawn to one or both ends of the bathtub to facilitate entry into the tub, hinged doors which open outwardly from a framed opening which may include one or more fixed panels extending upwardly from the bathtub wall; or horizontally slidable panels guided by top and bottom frame guides supported on the tub wall and at selected height above the tub wall.
In the latter two types of enclosures involving hinged or horizontally slidable doors or panels, access to the bathtub is restricted and limited. Therefore such enclosures hamper and increase the difficulty of cleaning such an enclosed bathtub. In addition, children are often bathed in bathtubs by mothers who must kneel or sit alongside the tub and attempt to properly bath the child by reaching through the fixed door opening. Obviously, such fixed closures for the bathtub present disadvantages in both cleaning the tub and in bathing a child therein. In addition, such prior enclosures usually included vertical joint lines, not only at the jambs but also at the vertical edges of a hinged door or vertical interlock edges of horizontal sliding panels. Such additional vertical joints to be sealed required careful assembly and installation with restricted tolerances in order to provide a leakproof enclosure.